From Jerusalem to the Archives

Introduction From Jerusalem to the Archives Written history must be contrapuntal, not harmonic. Charles Maier ∵ A black-and-white photograph that exists in duplicate in the archives of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem shows a group of children seated at a table, looking toward the photographer, with pieces of bread in their hands, while a nun distributes more bread (fig. 0.1). The caption reads “Group of children in a refugee camp”. In fact, on closer inspection, the image turns out to be a snapshot of the preparations for a first communion ceremony, celebrated in Amman in 1951, which is also confirmed by the presence in the background of some little girls dressed in white with wreaths on their heads. As symbolized by the ambivalence of this picture, for the Latin Church of Jerusalem the decade that followed the 1947–49 Palestine War, and particularly the shattering events and harsh battles of 1948, was taken up with aiding refugees and the difficult FIGURE 0.1 “Group of children in a refugee camp.” In another album, captioned “First communion in 1951” in Amman APLJ/AEBAF © Maria Chiara Rioli, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004423718_002 Maria Chiara Rioli - 9789004423718 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 08:51:34PM via free access 2 Introduction task of resuming the ordinary daily life of a community of the faithful, punctu- ated by its liturgies and celebrations of the sacraments. The community of the Latin-rite Roman Catholic patriarchal diocese of Jerusalem constitutes one of the most important components in the com- plex reality of the Catholic and, in a wider perspective, Christian world of the so-called “Holy Land”. The Catholic Church in the Middle East is composed of seven churches, all of them under the authority of the pope: the Eastern Catholic churches – the Melkite, Maronite, Chaldean, Coptic, Syrian and Armenian – and the Roman Catholic Church, most of whose adherents are under the jurisdiction of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The former pre- serve the various Eastern rites (hence their description as “Eastern Catholics”) while the latter follows the Western Latin rite (and therefore its members are called “Latins”). Geographically, at the moment of its reestablishment in 1847, the borders of the Latin Patriarchate were delimited to the north by the Ras al-Abyad promontory up to the southern tip of Mount Hermon, to the east by the Syrian desert, to the south by the al-‘Arish river, and to the west by the Mediterranean Sea, including the island of Cyprus. Nowadays, the Latin Catholic diocese extends through Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Jordan and Cyprus, comprising some 293,053 faithful. On the eve of the 1947–49 Palestinian War, the Latin community was one of the largest Christian groups in Palestine and Transjordan.1 The diocesan terri- tory comprised around 35,000 faithful, with 51 parishes, 138 religious houses, 32 schools for boys with more than 7,300 pupils, 65 schools for girls with more than 10,500 pupils, and 43 charitable institutions. Within this network of opera- tions, then as now, there was the vast, centuries-old religious, educational and charitable presence of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, established in 1217 and whose main task was and still is the safeguarding of the Holy Places. 1 According to the British Mandatory census in 1931, the largest Christian community in Palestine were the Greek Orthodox (39,727), the Catholic Latin (18,895, the majority of whom were female) and Melkite (12,645) communities. See Eric Mills, Census of Palestine 1931, vol. 1, pt. 1, Report (Alexandria: Government of Palestine, 1933), 99. Rough estimates for the Latin population in Palestine after the Second World War refer to around 25,000–30,000 faithful. According to patriarchal data, in 1947 Transjordan had a total population of around 400,000 inhabitants, who were mostly Muslim. The Christians in Transjordan numbered around 40,000, of whom 11,094 were Catholic (7,343 Latins and 3,751 Melkites). See Adolphe Perrin, Centenaire du Patriarcat latin de Jérusalem, 1847–1947 (Jerusalem: Patriarcat Latin, 1947), “Remarques,” unpaginated. The most populous Latin parishes were those of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Amman. Maria Chiara Rioli - 9789004423718 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 08:51:34PM via free access From Jerusalem to the Archives 3 1 A Battleground of Narratives The history of the Latin Patriarchate cannot be fully understood outside the broader picture of Christianity in the Middle East. Since the 1990s, historical studies in this field have experienced rapid growth.2 These new narratives rejected the description of Eastern Christians as “victims” and “symbols”, as presented in contemporary Western media and political discourse.3 They also marked a revision of the historiographic paradigms that, in previous decades, had consigned the Christians to the parameters of the ahl al-dhimmī within the millet system of the Ottoman era, isolated from other majority communities, or subject to the service of Western powers.4 Thus, moving beyond these 2 For a bibliographical review of some of the principal studies on the Christians in the Middle East, see Cesare Santus, Trasgressioni necessarie: communicatio in sacris, coesistenza e con- flitti tra le comunità cristiane orientali (Levante e Impero ottomano, XVII–XVIII secolo) (Rome: École française de Rome, 2019); Andreas Schmoller, ed., Middle Eastern Christians and Europe: Historical Legacies and Present Challenges (Münster: LIT, 2018); Bernard Heyberger, Les chrétiens d’Orient (Paris: PUF, 2017); Giorgio Fedalto, Le Chiese d’Oriente: Sintesi storica (Verona: Mazziana, 2016); Heyberger, Les chrétiens au Proche-Orient: De la compassion à la compréhension (Paris: Payot & Rivages, 2013); Anthony O’Mahony, and John Flannery, eds., The Catholic Church in the Contemporary Middle East: Studies for the Synod for the Middle East (London: Melisende, 2010); O’Mahony, ed., Eastern Christianity: Studies in Modern History, Religion and Politics (London: Melisende, 2004); Heyberger, ed., Chrétiens du monde arabe: Un archipel en terre d’Islam (Paris: Autrement, 2003); Andrea Pacini, ed., Christian Communities in the Arab Middle East: The Challenge of the Future, trans. Fiona Tupper-Carey (New York: Clarendon, 1998); Ronald G. Roberson, The Eastern Christian Churches: A Brief Survey (Rome: Orientalia Christiana, 1995); Heyberger, Les chrétiens du Proche-Orient au temps de la Réforme catholique (Syrie, Liban, Palestine, XVIIe–XVIIIe siècle) (Rome: École française de Rome, 1994). For an analysis of the relationship between Christians, Jews, and Muslims, see Heather J. Sharkey, A History of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017); Heleen L. Murre-van den Berg and Sasha Goldstein-Sabbah, eds., Searching for Common Ground: Jews and Christians in the Modern Middle East (Leiden: Brill, 2016); and Bruce Masters, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World: The Roots of Sectarianism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001). 3 See Paul Sedra, “Writing the History of the Modern Copts: From Victims and Symbols to Actors,” History Compass 7, no. 3 (2009). As Bernard Heyberger summarizes it poignantly: “News abounds regarding violence and injustices committed against Christians in various countries and about their ever-shrinking numbers due to emigration. However, this approach, which depicts Eastern Christians only as victims, prevents us from understanding their actual situation in the home countries or in the diaspora.” “Eastern Christians, Islam, and the West: A Connected History,” IJMES 42, no. 3 (2010): 475. 4 See the controversial thesis of Bat Ye’or in The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam, trans. David Maisel, Paul Fenton, and David Littman (London: Associated University Press, 1985) and The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude, trans. Miriam Kochan and David Littman (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996). Maria Chiara Rioli - 9789004423718 Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 08:51:34PM via free access 4 Introduction sectarian categories and, instead, recognizing the Christians as agents (and no longer as victims of political persecution or as collaborators with foreign powers), a connected history of the Christian communities of the Middle East has emerged, and is being continuously enriched by new contributions.5 As regards the late Ottoman era, the Christian contribution to the nahḍa, the cultural renaissance in the second half of the nineteenth century, and to the formation of Arab nationalism is becoming ever clearer.6 There has also been a renewal in the study of the Palestinian and Jordanian Christians, particularly in research on the late Ottoman and Mandate periods, which has unpacked the contribution of the Christians in the construction of a new political, economic and cultural middle class, and their participation in the creation of the emerging Arab identities and, at the same time, in cul- tivating global links.7 This historiographical rejuvenation is a consequence of 5 Besides the already quoted pioneering works of Bernard Heyberger, see Akram Khater, Embracing the Divine: Passion, Politics and Gender in the Christian Middle East, 1720–1798 (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2011); Paul Rowe, “Building Coptic Civil Society: Christian Groups and the State in Mubarak’s Egypt,” Middle Eastern Studies 45, no. 1 (2009); Fiona McCallum, “The Political Role of the Patriarch in the Contemporary Middle East,” Middle

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